A new type of electromagnetic system for magnetorheological elastomer (MRE)-based base isolation system

Magnetorheological elastomer (MRE)-based base isolation system has been proposed to compensate for the drawbacks of the existing passive-type base isolation system. MRE is one of smart material with magnetorheological (MR) effect that can change the stiffness and damping ratio in real time when the magnetic field is applied. The conventional MRE-based base isolation system has inter-place between MRE and electromagnetic system. This is determined in consideration of the deformation of MRE, resulting in loss of magnetic flux density and excessive volume of MRE-based base isolation system. Since the strain of the MRE should be considered to be 100 % as base isolation system, the size of the base isolation system becomes large and the practical applicability is remarkably reduced. In addition, the loss of the magnetic flux density increases according to the size of the inter-space between MRE and electromagnetic system. Therefore, a new type of electromagnetic system is proposed to address these problems. In this study, an electromagnetic system which can move with MRE by separating it to the laminated type is proposed. MRE-based base isolation system with the laminated electromagnetic system occupies a small volume compared to the conventional MRE based base isolation system and can form magnetic closed loop which can minimize the loss of the magnetic flux density. The numerical simulation was performed to compare the proposed electromagnetic system and the conventional MRE-based base isolation. From the numerical simulation, the lab-scale experiment was carried out and the proposed method can be utilized to improve the reality of MRE-based base isolation system.